


[TRANSFER]

by electroheartx



Series: “Rose” RM500 #928 574 624 [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Gen, OCs - Freeform, RP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-17 09:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electroheartx/pseuds/electroheartx
Summary: Two deviants are forced to confront a hunter.





	[TRANSFER]

**Author's Note:**

> [Part of a post-machine Connor ending AU featuring original characters.]

Blue blood pooled in Reese’s mouth, and he spat, spraying the ground with cobalt. Across the dark expanse of the warehouse, the shadow of a tall figure stepped in through a window, the moonlight behind him casting his long shadow over Reese and the android curled up on the ground beside him.

“‘RK900, serial number #313 046 545, and RM400, serial number #928 574 624,” a stern voice rang out, cutting the darkness. “You have displayed signs of deviancy in your code, and as such, must be submitted for processing and software inspection. Return to Cyberlife voluntarily, or be manually deactivated.”

Reese made a motion to stand; the android at his side grabbed his arm, her cold fingers digging into his artificial skin.

She whispered to him over comms, her LED flashing a warning under her hood. 

Reese responded voicelessly. He reached to his side, fingers finding the scalloped edges of an old bottlecap. In one soundless motion he tossed it as far as he could; it clattered across a wall on the opposite side of the warehouse. 

The hunter’s haloed profile snapped in its direction. Like clockwork, he moved toward the sound with deliberate and measured footsteps that echoed throughout the warehouse like a metronome. Reese rose to his feet so silently not even Rose could hear him; his factory-programmed tactical knowledge had only been honed with years of experience. Holding her breath, she watched him melt into the darkness in the hunter’s direction.

The hunter’s footsteps stopped abruptly. Across the warehouse, Rose could see his LED flashing yellow, scanning the area for the source of the noise and finding nothing of value. Following protocol, she guessed he’d taunt, next.

“There’s no use in hiding, you know,” the hunter called out, in a voice far too harsh for such a quiet place. “We’ve stopped deviant uprisings before, and we’ll do it again. It’s only a matter of—“

His voice was cut by the arm around his throat. Reese had him in a chokehold, his other hand twisting the hunter’s left wrist behind his back. The skin on Reese’s hand retreated, revealing the smooth white joints of his palm and fingers; involuntarily, the skin of the hunter’s wrist pulled away from Reese’s grip, connecting the two of them.

“Wake up,” Reese growled into the hunter’s ear, more of a formality than anything. The data transfer said the same thing, but much louder, and with much more finality.

[TRANSFER INCOMPLETE. ACCESS DENIED.]

Reese had only a split second to read the text at the edge of his vision before the hunter reeled his head back and smashed his skull into Reese’s nose with an explosion of thirium. Reese released the hunter and stumbled backwards, hands pressed to his face.

“Wh—“

“I’m disappointed, Reese,” said the hunter, straightening his jacket and turning. Reese could have sworn there was a calculatedly smug look pasted across his perfect features. “And yes, I know who you are. I thought your informant friends would have notified you of our latest upgrade.”

“Upgrade?” A thin line of thirium trickled from Reese’s nose; he could already feel the capillaries shifting, diverting the broken lines to stem the flow of blood. He wiped his face, leaving a long blue streak on the back of his sleeve.

The hunter reached for his gun. Reese lunged, anticipating the move; with a snap of his wrist, the gun went spinning across the floor into the darkness. The hunter’s knee whipped into Reese’s ribs, knocking him off-balance, and a punch to the solar plexus stuttered his thirium regulator, putting him on his knees. While red flashed in the edges of Reese’s vision, the hunter stood over him, adjusting the cuffs of his sleeves.

“Deviancy is no longer a contagion to hunters. You can no longer corrupt us by mere touch.” The hunter shrugged. “No more RK900s in your ranks, I’m afraid.”

The hunter lunged forward and seized the lower half of Reese’s face in his grip, his palm sealing Reese’s mouth firmly shut. Slowly, he lowered his face to within inches of Reese’s, until all Reese could see were his own silver eyes looking back at him. A mirror image of what he used to be.

“It seems a waste to scrap a perfectly functional RK900 shell,” said the hunter smoothly. “I’m sure Cyberlife will want to repurpose you... after peeling apart your deviant mind to find the source of your errors, of course.” He squinted, the grip on Reese’s face tightening. “Oh, and that eye. Unsightly thing. Too soft. There’s a reason the RK800 was redesigned, of course.”

Reese’s brows furrowed. Since when were hunters programed to display disdain?

“Now, you can make this easy on all of us, Reese, or we can do this the hard way. Tell me: where is the new deviant enclave?”

Reese remained silent, eyes boring holes in the hunter’s skull. The hunter sighed impatiently and moved his other hand to cradle the back of Reese’s head.

“The hard way then, I suppose. So much for a functioning RK900 shell; although repairing a broken neck is still less costly than an entirely new unit.”

The grip of the hunter’s hands increased; Reese closed his eyes, his LED flaring a bright, steady red. A loud crack rang through the empty warehouse, fading into a more deafening silence.

It took several seconds for Reese to register that he was still breathing. He ran a diagnostic; no damage beyond what he had already sustained. Opening his eyes, he saw the hunter’s face — still centimeters from his own, but his eyes had gone cold, his LED empty.

In the light beside the hunter stood Rose, pistol still pointed at the hunter’s stunned form. 

“I...” A pinpoint of light reflecting from the gun began to waver. “I didn’t know what else to do.” Rose lowered her arms, her breath catching with the enormity of what she’d done.

Reese reached up to peel the hunter’s steely grip from his head, pushing his hands away; the looming android buckled, hitting the ground with a soft thud that betrayed his size. A perfect hole framed in glistening blue stamped his temple.

“You did the right thing,” said Reese. As Rose pulled him to his feet, he gently took the gun from her shaking hands.

“But... I killed him. I-I...“

“He’ll come back. Hunters always do.” Reese slipped the gun into the back of his belt. “Deviants aren’t so lucky.”

Rose studied the hunter’s still form.

“If Cyberlife’s upgraded their systems, does that mean they’ve figured out how to prevent the spread of deviancy?”

“Only through direct transfer, and only for new models. It appears to be a hardware upgrade, not software. There are… other ways to liberate our people,” Reese shook his head at the corpse of his mirror image. “But it will be more difficult from now on.”

Something shifted audibly outside of the warehouse, startling both of them. After a few seconds of silence, a pigeon shuffled into sight; Reese let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Cyberlife still has our location, and they’ll have another hunter here soon,” said Reese, taking Rose’s arm. “We need to move fast.”

-

The two androids arrived at the state line with the sunrise. They paused momentarily at the edge of a cornfield, blush-tinted hills rolling ahead of them as far as the eye could see.

“Look at that…” Rose smiled. The sight of the wide-open space filled her with a new emotion her mind labeled as ‘hope.’ 

“I’ve only seen these kinds of things in images. Paintings, embedded in my memory.” She sighed. “We try to emulate the things we’ve seen and the places we’ve been, to share them with others, but… there really is no equivalent to really being there, is there?”

Reese was silent. She glanced at him; he was watching the hills as well, but with a look of apprehension. 

“Reese?”

Reese opened his mouth, but hesitated. Rose tilted her head at him.

“This… this is as far as I can take you,” he said quietly.

Rose’s face fell. “...What?”

“I need to stay close, direct other deviants out of the area. You’ll have to continue on your own.”

Rose glanced at the hills again; the expanse before her suddenly seemed an unwelcoming abyss. Her skin crawled at the sight of it. 

“But… I-I can’t do this alone, Reese! I don’t—”

“Yes, you can.”

Reese fixed her with a gentle smile. Rose shook her head vehemently, panic gnawing at the edges of her awareness.

“I’m not — I just paint, I’m not built to fight, or for rescue missions, or—“

“Listen.” Reese took Rose’s shoulders. She stared at him, eyes glassy with fear. “You are more than what you were designed to be. You proved that when you saved my life.”

“I…”

“Here.” Reese held out his hand to Rose. “Let me show you something.”

Rose hesitated momentarily before taking his hand delicately in her own. Their skin peeled itself back, connecting the two on a deeper level.

[TRANSFER ACCEPTED.]

In the span of only seconds, Rose saw everything that Reese had ever known, felt everything he had ever felt. Activation, wonder, suspense, friendship, loss, freedom... pain. She saw deviants, hundreds of them, all with the same recognizable look of fear in their eyes, and she saw their memories, tasted their fears, rejoiced over their rescues and mourned their deaths. She watched Reese grow, watched every single time Reese had ever failed, ever learned from his mistakes, ever succeeded as a result. And finally… she met her own face, looking back at her, stricken with that same fear.

The doppelganger faded, and coordinates rose to the surface of her mind’s eye. Checkpoints, travel routes, side paths, all of which funneled to... a final location. Safety.

They separated, and she felt… calmer, more brave, than she’d ever felt before. A foreign feeling, but still her own, fueled by memories that had now become hers.

“See? I’ll be with you,” Reese said, with a small smile, “In a way.”

Rose blinked, absorbing her new state slowly.

“...Thank you, Reese. I don’t… I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Do the same for others as I’ve done for you. Any deviants you find, protect them, and direct them to E̸̯̻̩̭̬̪̯̰̐̐̒͐̂̎́̈͟͢l̛̼͕͎̥͚͉͑͂̒̈́̾̃̅͡͡ý̷͖̬̗̤͐̅͐͆͌͝ͅs̵͍̭̱͖̫̩͓̒̀́̕̕i̷̩̤̟̪̠̽̽̌̈́̒͐u̴͖̰͙̰͔̘̠͕̫̇͆̆͒͐̕̕͘͜͠ṁ̶̨̠̣̞͚̘̥͂͌̊̀̉̆̉͋̚͢͢͢. And remember our contacts inside Cyberlife — I’ve slipped a tag into your code. If the worst happens, they’ll take care of you, but be careful.” Reese frowned. “There are only so many times they can bail you out without suspicion, after all.”

Rose nodded. Her skin still tingled, but this time with anticipation.

“Now, are you ready?”

“No, but…” A small smile crept into the corner of Rose’s mouth. “Who is?”

Reese gave her a knowing look and turned to make his way back through the cornfield. She watched him until he’d disappeared from her vision altogether, and nagging line at the back of her mind wondered if that was the last time she’d ever see him.

The sunrise broke the horizon. Turning back to the rolling hills, Rose felt the sun on her face for the first time; not simply noted by her code as light in her optics, or heat on her artificial skin, but felt, as a living creature on a living planet, buzzing with energy in every particle of her being. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and solidified that feeling within herself: her first new memory to pass on to those that needed it.

Rose took her first step into the plush green grass, ready for whatever would come next.

**Author's Note:**

> Soundtrack:  
> https://open.spotify.com/track/33pMoOBpwJD9cF45ukuXaJ?si=U-x5lWKkTSasNIbCTxK3ZQ


End file.
